Posts with the North America tag

Barris Beat

Get some. Miss some.

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Firefighters in the Blitz, 1940.

The public-speaking appearance was half done. At intermission, last Friday night in the central-Alberta city of Camrose, I sat at a table signing books and listening to feedback from members of the audience.

A woman approached; with her British accent she offered her take on the subject of my evening talk, the Battle of Britain. She was a child in London during the Blitz in the summer of 1940, when she said her father had served in the London fire brigade fighting fires German bombers ignited each night.

“When he came home in the morning after fighting fires all night, I remember his face was completely black with soot,” she said, then drawing imaginary circles around her eyes, “except the white around his eyes where he’d warn protective goggles.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Betrayal of the tribe

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George Maharis and Martin Milne in “Route 66” TV series.

Last weekend, I stopped at one of the service stations in town to gas up my car. As I painfully watched the LED readout of my gas purchase whiz higher and higher, a guy pulled up to the pump across from me. He was in town for the weekend car show, driving a Corvette, an early one, like the one Todd Stiles and Buz Murdock drove in the hit TV series Route 66. As he began filling his car, I caught his eye.

“This must be the least fun part of driving a car like that,” I said to the guy, “filling a gas guzzler like your Vet.”

“Not at all,” he said. “It’s my guilty pleasure.” (more…)

Barris Beat

When Canada’s sovereignty was young

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Arctic ice pack. carbon brief

Seventeen years ago, a number of Canadian and American scientists set off on a unique voyage – sailing the Bellot Strait, a narrow channel in the Arctic Ocean that separates the most northerly point of North American mainland from Somerset Island in Canada’s Far North.

For the first time in history their vessel crossed the strait in October (when typically it would be frozen). One of the scientists on the trip in 2006 noted that Canadian Coast Guard officials aboard the ship all had the same reaction.

“They were collectively terrified,” explained Michael Byers then director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC. Terrified that the strait was entirely ice-free during the voyage, and therefore open to passage. (more…)

Barris Beat

For want of bats in my belfry

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Bats by the millions have died of disease, lack of habitat and thanks to human impact on their environment. Phys.com

I sat on our back porch after sunset one evening this week. I was looking for them. The light was dying fast, which was why I was there. I kept scanning the skies over our backyard and our neighbours’ yards, looking, looking. One of my grandchildren was with me and wondered what I was doing, why I was so intent.

“They should be here by now,” I said softly.

“What should be here?” he asked.

“The bats,” I said. “I haven’t seen them this year.” (more…)

Barris Beat

From small boats, mighty deeds

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Suez Canal Authority tugboats free wedged container ship. cbc.ca

You could almost feel the jubilation from there to here. Video flooded on-air newscasts and social media late Monday. It was nighttime in the Middle East, but the lights on the canal made it seem like day. And the cacophony of maritime whistles and horns blowing seemed deafening. Container ship horns, police boat horns and especially the horns of the Egyptian tugboats on the Suez Canal leapt from every video I watched. One videographer shot images of a jubilant tugboat crew.

“Mashhour is number one!” the sailors shouted.

Mashhour is the name of the dredging vessel that helped clear the tons of sand at the bow and stern of the massive container ship MV Ever Given, that was wedged sideways in the Suez Canal for nearly a week. (more…)

Barris Beat

Survival of history and habit

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Mark Bourrie, winner of 2020 Charles Taylor Prize, being interviewed March 2, in Toronto. Barris photo.

I don’t imagine it’s something you pay much attention to. When you rush into that well-known department store at Yonge and Bloor in Toronto to buy an umbrella or a birthday card or maybe even a coat with the store’s iconic green, red, yellow and blue stripes on it, maybe that’s when you stop to realize that the symbol is three and a half centuries old. Indeed, as we learned from a story published this week in the Toronto Star, the Hudson’s Bay Company store will be 350 years old come this May 2, 2020.

“What’s more, the history of the Bay and the history of Canada are interconnected,” says Mark Bourrie, long-time journalist, historian and author of Bush Runner, a book about Pierre-Esprit Radisson, the acknowledged founder of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). (more…)

Barris Beat

What is the benefit?

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Scrabble With The Stars competitors (l-r) Charlotte Moore, Dorcas Beaton and Alan Gotlib. Photo from Performing Arts Lodges, Toronto. April 25, 2016.
Scrabble With The Stars competitors (l-r) Charlotte Moore, Dorcas Beaton and Alan Gotlib. Photo from Performing Arts Lodges, Toronto. April 25, 2016.

It was that time of the night. The host had told plenty of jokes. The volunteers had completed most of the preparations. The event was unfolding the way most had hoped. Even the chair of the fundraising committee had a smile on her face. It was time for the pitch. So, out came the president of the charity that was the beneficiary of the evening to speak.

“Time to dig deep folks,” he said. “It’s why we’re here, right? To make some money.” (more…)